The George W Bush Presidential Center, Part 1

The George W Bush Presidential Center includes the Presidential Library, Museum, Policy Institute, and the Bush Foundation.  I have been to the Bush Center Museum twice and loved it both times. My first visit, a few years ago, the special exhibits section focused on all the First Ladies. On this, my second, visit to the Museum the special exhibit section displayed the President's "Portraits in Courage" paintings.  Because there were so many parts to the Center I want to share with you, I am posting this blog in three parts.

The George W Bush Presidential Center

The Bush Center is located on the Southern Methodist University campus near Dallas in University Park, Texas. The Center is in a beautiful building, but very cold so you need a sweater to enjoy it fully. In the lobby there are glass displays that contained state gifts from leaders from around the world. It truly seems crazy to me that this whole gift giving practice still exists. The President cannot personally keep the gifts, although they can wear the jewelry to events while in office, and they can display them in their library.  To me it would make more sense for the gift giving country to donate money to an American charity in the name of the President. Just seems like such a waste of money.

Golden desert scene given to Laura Bush from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and a sterling silver clutch purse given to Laura from Emine Erdogon, wife of the Prime Minister of Turkey.

Sterling silver model of the Al Jahili castle in the United Arab Emirates presented to Laura Bush, and A sapphire and diamond jewelry set presented to Laura by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

A gift from President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of The Untied Republic of Tanzania. I wonder where this was stored before the Center opened.

When you get into the permanent exhibit section it is full of historic and interesting displays. This includes a replica of the Oval Office that is decorated as it was during the Bush presidency. You can walk around and see the office just as it was, and even get your picture taken sitting at the President's desk.

The President's desk in the replica of the Oval Office

The sitting area of the replica of the Oval Office.

There are displays and pictures of Bills and Legislation that were passed during the Bush years, including the pens he used to sign them. The museum had a large display on the AIDS campaign Bush started in Africa, and some of his other humanitarian projects.

The pens used to sign bills by the President.

This is called a map of need. The size of the nations are an illustration of where the most people are located that were suffering from HIV in 2003. Because of the high level of HIV cases in Africa, it is disproportionately larger than the rest of the nations of the world. 

These are a close up of the pictures of the real people that are suffering, or have died from HIV. These faces make up the map above.

This is a letter from Bono, the lead singer of U2, to President Bush praising him for his leadership in the fight against AIDS. I love how he addresses the President with, "Hey Pres!" and "Yo Bush!"

In true George W Bush's humor he replies to Bono with a "Yo Bono!", and ends the note with a P.S. referring to his wife and daughters as "All the Bush Chicks."

There is a exhibit on the Bush family and their lives in the White House that include statues of their dogs, their clothes worn during state visits, items from the visit from Queen Elizabeth II, there are pictures and displays of the annual Easter Egg Roll, and visits from winning sports teams. There is a small theater section where you can watch a hilarious video of the Bush daughter's presenting a video of their Dad, President Bush, and some humorous highlights of his time in the White House.

Statues of Barney and Miss Beazley the Bush's Scottish Terriers.

Invitations to the annual Eater Egg Roll, the egg artist display, a ticket to the roll, the official decorated egg from each Bush year, and the President's whistle to start the festivities. 

Close up of some of the eggs.

 Laura's gown, the President's tux, the invitations, and the welcome speech the President read during Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip's State visit on May 7-8, 2007.

Whether you liked his politics, or not, people from all over the world loved his sense of humor and human kindness. Even Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton seem to enjoy being around George W Bush.

As you walk out of the permanent exhibit you walk across these words on the floor. You see the date when President Bush leaves the Presidency, and becomes a Private Citizen.

Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 of this Bush Center series.

Minnie Mouse Princess Dress

My Granddaughter loves to dress up. She is two and a half and loves frilly skirts, Mommy's shoes, jewelry, and purses. So, instead of buying a $30 Disney Princess dress that she will grow out of in a month, I decided to make her some play princess dresses. This was my first attempt.

I bought some clearance t-shirts from Target, Kohls and Walmart for $5 or less that I am using for the top of the dress.

I think this shirt was $4.50 on clearance and is now going to be the top of my Princess dress.

I went to JoAnn Fabric, went to the clearance bolts of fabric, and bought tulle, satin, silky, and fancy fabrics to use as the skirt part of the gown. I buy the fabric when it is on sale, clearance, or when I have a coupon. Because I only need a half of a yard of the fabric for the skirt I could buy the fabric for a few dollars.

This tulle was on clearance, and a half of a yard only cost me $2.50.

For the Minnie Mouse t-shirt's skirt I decided to use a white satin material I had left over from my daughter's wedding. I used the satin for the skirt and bow. I then use the white tulle (above) with silver sparkle dots on it to be the top layer of the skirt.

This is the satin material from my daughter's wedding. It is a light cream color, but this picture makes it look a bit darker.

I ran a basting stitch about 1/2 inch from the edge across the top width of the satin and the tulle, and then pulled the top thread to gather the two layers. They needed to be at least 19 inched in width to fit around my granddaughters waist. I made it a bit bigger and then pinned the two layers of the skirt, satin and tulle, together. I also sewed the back of each layer of the skirt together in a back seam to close the skirt.

For the basting stitch I used the widest stitch on the machine.

Then, you pull the top thread end and gather the fabric as much as you need.

I pinned the satin and tulle gathered pieces together, and then sewed them together with a 5/8 inch seam.

Next, I pinned the skirt to the waist of the t-shirt and sewed the skirt to the t-shirt. I bought some Rose ribbon and sewed it over the raw edges of the top of the skirt. Then I cut a long 4 inch wide strip of the satin fabric, folded it in half, sewed it across one end, down the open side, and then turned it right side out. I then sewed the open end closed, pressed it, tied it into a bow and tacked it to the back of the waist of the gown. My first attempt was to make a sash around the waist, but it kept falling down and showing the raw edges of the top of the skirt, so I went for the ribbon and bow instead.

The skirt sewn to the t-shirt.

Turning the sash right side out.

To dress up the t-shirt a bit, I took some kite string and strung some pearl beads on it. When I had about 20 beads on the string I tied a knot on each end to hold the beads on the string. Now, I had to hide the string knots, so I took a needle and thread and starting at the middle of the string of beads and the middle of the t-shirt neck, I started sewing the pearls to the neck of the dress. When I got to the end where the knot was, I pulled the thread up through the neck and into the knot and then through one extra pearl and back down into the neck. Then knotted the thread off into the shirt. I then went back to the middle and went up the opposite side, adding a pearl at that end. Then I took a piece of ribbon and tied it into a bow around the strings knot on each end.

The bows are covering the knots on each end of the strung pearls. The pearl on the end is just sewn in place.

The front view before the new rose ribbon waistband and before it was hemmed.

The back view before the rose ribbon/bow and before it was hemmed.

Last I needed to hem the skirt. I did make the mistake of hemming it too short, but made a pretty thick hem, so I could let it out if needed. I needed to.

My sweet granddaughter on her first fitting, lol

Princess gowns look better with a blankie and Meemaw's hat.

Turned out so cute on my sweet princess!

"Dress the Bride", a fun bridal shower game.

Over 35 years ago my sister Jean was engaged and we played the best game at her bridal shower. When I was planning my future daughter in-laws shower, I really wanted to play the game again for her bridal shower.

The Dress the Bride game we played over 35 years ago

We divided the shower guests into 3 teams, in our case that was 4 people on a team, and I was the designated judge. Each team picks a team member to be the bride. The team then received 3 rolls of toilet paper, 2 rolls of paper towels and a box of toothpicks.

All the teams working hard to have the best dressed bride! (As usual I covered the faces of our guests.)

I gave the teams about 30 to 45 minutes to make their bride a wedding gown. They can make it long or short, out of just paper towels, or just toilet paper, it is all up to them. The only restrictions are that they cannot use anything but the three items given to them.

Team one is hard at work making the ball gown

This finished product had a rag knotted skirt and a long train. 

Team one's head piece

It was so much fun to watch them work. Each team member took on a role, a designer or "seamstress", someone would make flowers, the bouquet, the train, or the veil. There was one person on each team that it seemed all they did was unroll the paper or, there was one person that all they did was pin the paper with toothpicks. It was true team work.

Team Two is working on their Mermaid gown.

The gown has a beautiful rose at the neck and waist and embellishments at the flare.

Team Two's bride had a long veil.

As the teams started working, I had my doubts that a few of the gowns were going to look anything close to a gown, but low and behold, they pulled them off.

Team Three is hard at work on their tea length gown.

Team Three had the winning dress with this tea length gown with a cross bodice, a braided belt with a flower, and a layered  skirt.

Team Three's head piece was a work of art.

We had one gown that was a Mermaid style, one that was tea length, and one that was a full out ball gown. They were all impressive. And the guests had so much fun!

The prizes for the game were all dressed up!

For the prizes for the winning team I decorated foaming soap bottles from "Bath and Body Works" with pearls and a veil.  I just strung some pearl beads on kite string, and then cut some lace fabric for the veil and tied it to the bottle with kite string. They were cute prizes and what better prize for a "Dress the Bride" game than a soap bottle dressed like a bride?

Bridal Shower Ice Breaker "Name the Kitchen Gadget"

When my daughter was married 6 years ago I came up with an icebreaker game that was so much fun that I decided to play it again at my future Daughter In-law's shower.  I call the game "Name the Kitchen Gadget". The post for my daughter's shower was on Aug 25, 2014.

This is the table setting for my Daughter's shower. The kitchen gadgets are numbered and lay along the middle of the tables.

For my Daughter's shower I found about 20 unique, and odd gadgets for our guests to guess, and believe it or not, I was able to find 17 items for my Daughter In-law's shower, and didn't duplicate one of the items from 6 years ago.

Gadgets from our Bridal Shower ice breaker. Do you know what they are?

Many of the items I bought were just a few dollars each, and I was able to get most of them at the Kitchen Store in the local Outlet Mall. Some of the items were so weird I had to ask the sales person at the store what they were, and how to use them.

The video below is my sister demonstrating one of the kitchen gadgets from our "Name the Kitchen Gadget" bridal shower game.

                                             

I made number tags for each item and attached the tag with a string to the gadget. The tagged gadgets were put along the table runners at the shower.

The tags represented our theme of "Cactus and Lace". Lace on the front.

Cacti on the back.

When the shower guests arrive they are given a numbered paper and a pen.

The answer sheet has an Arizona blue sky and each had a cactus sticker on the bottom.

You may think this is a cactus plant:

But, you would be Wrong!! They are pens made by my sister Jean in honor of my Mom. My Mom would make flower pens and pass them out to everyone she met. 

The guests look at the gadget, try to figure out what it is, and write their guess on the paper next to the corresponding number. As they are looking at the items they are talking to the other guests discussing the items, and trying to guess what they are used for.

The gadgets were place along the table runner on the tables.

When everyone is finished we see who guessed the most gadgets correctly. I pick each item up, tell them the gadgets number and have the guests tell me what they think it is. This is the best part, listening to their funny guesses.

This gadget was the most talked about, and no one guessed what it was. Many of the wrong guesses had something to do with it being some kind of timer, because of the numbers on the top. It is a cake or pie divider. There is a piece on the back (you can see it in the top picture of all the  gadgets) that you push into the center of the cake. First, you line the red slit pieces under the line on the red top. Then you move the white slit piece under the number of pieces you want to get out of the cake or pie. Next, you use a knife to mark the cake at the slips and then cut a piece of cake or pie.

The guest with the most correct answers wins a gift, in our case it was one of the large succulent centerpieces. At this shower we had 17 gadgets and the winner of the game was only able to guess 6 correctly.  The "Bride To Be" gets to take all the gadgets home with her. Hopefully she can remember what they are all used for, lol.